The Presidential Daily Brief

important

The Trump-Kim Summit’s Qualified Success

While this week’s second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un failed spectacularly, it relieved many observers by not yielding a much-feared bad deal. The summit’s Vietnamese hosts, who had three weeks to prepare, were also relieved: They’d proven they could put on a world-class event at the drop of a hat. That included, of course, keeping activists under wraps.

Who was the biggest winner? Hanoi, of course, with a photo op of U.S. and Vietnamese leaders waving each other’s flags, perhaps incentivizing Kim’s next talks.